Milwaukee studio's game gets prime placement in Motorola tablet ad

A television commercial for the Motorola Xoom, an Android tablet, features a game designed by Milwaukee's Guild Software. The firm is taking advantage of the competition in the mobile industry to give its online game a new audience.

The tablet wars are heating up with Verizon's launch of Motorola's Xoom this week, and a Milwaukee studio's computer game is featured front and center in the gadget's nationwide commercials.

Guild Software, a small, independent game studio here, runs an online computer game called "Vendetta Online" that it's successfully transformed to play on tablets running Google's Android operating system. And "Vendetta" on Android was just the slick-looking sci-fi experience Verizon wanted to show off its latest Internet-connected tablet.

Industry experts consider the Xoom a direct challenge to Apple's next iPad, which is expected to be revealed Wednesday.

"We are bringing something really unusual to the mobile platform," said John Bergman, founder of Guild Software. "We're pretty jazzed to see this taking place."

In the television spot, a man in a leather jacket grabs a Xoom tablet, and a spaceship quickly materializes around him. He scrolls through some menus, activates a "Vendetta" application and is soon playing the game by tilting the tablet side to side. A voiceover extols the Xoom's technical virtues, which include a 1 GHZ dual-processor, 3-D graphics engine, a gyroscope and a widescreen high-definition display. The device costs $799 at Verizon stores and Best Buy and runs $599 with a 24-month Verizon contract.

Guild Software announced in June it was developing an Android version of "Vendetta," and the game was cast for the television commercial because Google executives saw the game during a meeting last year and liked it.

"They hooked us up with Verizon, whose ad company really liked the look of the game because it fit their concept so well," Bergman said.

The timing of the Xoom commercial and the game's product placement within it is ideal for Guild Software: Bergman says the release of "Vendetta" for Android is "imminent," likely available for download next week.

"We are working as fast as we can," Bergman said.

"Vendetta" is a massive multiplayer online game in which players build spaceships, explore and adventure in an always-evolving virtual universe. In addition to space battles, the game includes trading, mining and player blockades that can directly affect the game's economics. The close community of players and story-driven nature of the game have helped "Vendetta" stay steady in an online game industry flooded with social-networking games like "Farmville."

Bergman noted that the biggest challenge developing "Vendetta" for Android has been refining the touch-based interface for the game, which is played on Windows PCs and Macs using a keyboard and mouse.

"It is all one, single online universe for all versions of the game," Bergman said, noting that tablets online use Wi-Fi or Verizon's 3G or 4G data service. "You can play with anyone - on Mac, PC or Android - and interact with all your friends."

Guild Software eventually will enable voice chat for the Android version of "Vendetta" so players can talk among themselves. The first release of the mobile game will work only on Android tablets, but a version for Android phones could launch later this summer. Bergman said the game "will be inexpensive or possibly free" but require a subscription, which currently ranges from $10 for a month of service to $160 for two years.

Bergman says the "Vendetta" for Android will include a single-player tutorial mode players can try without signing up for any service. The introductory version will teach players to fly their ships, shoot and dock virtual vessels and then set them loose in a "sandbox sector" where they can fly timed trials, among other challenges.

"It gives the player some single-player content to get a taste of what the game is like," Bergman said.

Oui for 'Vendetta' See the Xoom ad with Guild Software's "Vendetta Online" game at bit.ly/iiIEBi.

About Stanley A. Miller II

Stan Miller is a Milwaukee native. He started his career at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shortly after graduating from Northwestern University in 1997 -- a professional journey that began on the night copy desk and transitioned over the years to covering personal technology, general assignment city news, real estate, business news and general features as well as technology. Despite those evolving roles, Stan has always held firm to his passion (and near-obsession) with technology and how it is changing our culture and society. Stan is also the defacto geek culture writer, with a keen interest in and appreciation of gaming, comics, fantasy art and science fiction. He has stood in many lines for midnight sales of the latest games and consumer electronics despite the fact he played with them months or years beforehand at trade shows like the Consumer Electronics Show and the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Stan is much more than a game-boy, however and is always evangelizing the good, the bad and the ugly of technology, whether that is through public speaking venues or teaching classes at local institutions of higher education. When he is not teching around, he is most likely either playing fetch with his dog, Sophie, or riding Wisconsin's beautiful trails on his roadbike.